Month: July 2019

Both WPP and Accenture declined to comment.

Agencies typically give auditors like Accenture access to their media data either when an advertiser wants to see how competitive those prices are versus the quality of the media bought, or if they want to compare the media rates one agency gets versus another. Data can include the cost per gross rating points on TV, display CPMs, viewability rates and how the reach of an ad equates to how many times the same person saw it.

If Accenture is privy to the prices WPP buys its media the advertising side of the consulting firm could potentially use that information to offer advertisers cheaper, more effective media during pitches. Those worries were exacerbated last year when Accenture Interactive revealed its programmatic buying arm.

Accenture has always maintained there are internal barriers in place that prevent its auditing arm helping its agency arm compete. Agencies, however, aren’t convinced those barriers are sufficient.

“As well as compromising impartiality, no business can legitimately offer competing media services to a market where it has a media auditor’s access to confidential client and agency media data and financial information,” said Paul Bainsfair, director general for U.K. ad agency trade body the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. “In an era where transparency is under the spotlight, this self-evident conflict of interest is unacceptable.”

It’s not clear whether the five other holding groups are making similar moves against Accenture. Both Havas and IPG declined to comment, while Publicis, Dentsu Aegis and Omnicom did not comment before this article was published.

The finer points of WPP’s boycott of Accenture are still being figured out, said a third exec, who previously worked at WPP’s buying arm GroupM.

“This decision comes from the people at the top of WPP but it’s hard to see how it plays out at global and local levels,” the exec said. “A stance like this suggests WPP will say no to being audited as there aren’t many auditors outside of Accenture currently that global advertisers are going to want to use. For it to work, WPP has to have a compelling argument to justify the boycott to advertisers as I doubt many will share the same conflicts of interests concerns as agencies.”

For WPP to hurt Accenture, its clients need to refuse to work with the consulting firm too, given clients often own data related to their own media investments. Whether an advertiser owns all that data depends on the contract with its agency. In some instances, the agency buys the media in the client’s name and therefore owns the data. But when an advertiser does own the data it’s often wrapped up in long-standing relationships with auditing firms spanning people, methodologies and outcomes that are baked into contracts with agencies. Moving away from all of that is a tall order for any advertiser that will depend much more on how satisfied they are with their own auditor than it does agency gripes with potential competitors.

“The uncomfortable truth is that potential conflicts of interest are everywhere you look within the agency groups, auditors and consultants that operate within the marketing and media industry, with very few exceptions,” said Paul Evans, a consultant and former global head of media at Vodafone Group. “Whether these are ever managed and held to account is ultimately down to the stance of the advertiser — whether they feel it matters or not to them.”

Mars, for example, is on the hunt for a new business to audit its media from 2020 onwards after parting ways with Accenture, said a source with knowledge of the review.

The timing of Mars’ move may seem like a seal of approval for WPP’s riposte to Accenture given the advertiser appointed MediaCom as its global media agency last August. But the factors surrounding it suggest it isn’t the sole motivation. Mars has been vocal for some time about the need to tighten its grip on how effective its media is, and made it a core part of its review last year. If the advertiser thought Accenture could help it demystify its media investments then it likely would’ve stuck with the consulting firm regardless of what an agency told it.

“We see a lot of demand for a next generation of media auditing services, as cost-based pool benchmarking is not fit for purpose for digital media”, said Ruben Schreurs, CEO at digital media consultancy Digital Decisions. “A lack of innovation around auditing methodology and reviewing digital media specifically is a common reason we hear from advertisers that move away from legacy players in the space.”

Any concerns over how Accenture makes money from advertising budgets don’t appear to have hit its agency business yet. Accenture Interactive is forecasted to grow revenue by more than 20% in 2019, according to its latest quarterly results.

The post Citing conflicts, WPP won’t participate in Accenture-led ad pitches appeared first on Digiday.

“Demand-path optimization is the reverse of supply-path optimization. I’m looking at what’s the most efficient path to get marketers’ dollars to me,” said Messer.

Demand-path optimization is an important undertaking among publishers in order to reinforce their role in the programmatic supply chain as more than inventory providers. Historically PMPs have been able to reinforce publishers’ role by offering safe havens for advertisers interested in buying ads programmatically but concerned about brand safety and fraud issues with inventory available through open auctions. However, ad verification vendors and initiatives like ads.txt have helped to assuage those concerns, and the rise of header bidding combined with advertisers’ and agencies’ embrace of supply path optimization has given ad buyers confidence that they are able to sufficiently access high quality, high performing inventory in the open marketplace.

“The open exchange, if bought in a responsible way, is the best way to scale against the audiences we care about,” said one agency exec.

“PMPs have always been a part of what we do, but the majority of our buying is more focused on the open exchange. It’s a symptom of having clients running campaigns that are more performance-based,” said a second agency exec.

While publishers are not against advertisers buying their inventory on the open exchange — money is money — they are working to position their PMPs as being able to offer better performance for advertisers. For example, AccuWeather has some PMP deals with advertisers that cover the same inventory that the publisher makes available on the open exchange. But when that inventory is purchased through its PMP, AccuWeather can apply its first-party data so that the ads only run when certain conditions are met that would maximize an ad’s performance, such as controlling for higher viewability. “The more powerful we can get with our first-party [data] is where we can defeat that [sentiment among ad buyers of] ‘Oh, I can just get this in open for cheaper,’” said Sarah Krembs, national director of strategic sales at AccuWeather.

In addition to using their PMPs to enhance the inventory that advertisers can access, publishers are increasingly using their PMPs to enhance how advertisers access their inventory. For Dotdash, the role of the PMP “has definitely evolved because, with supply-path optimization, we’re able to say these are the primary SSPs we use and this is the best way you can access our inventory. It brings back the conversation of this is why the PMP is valuable, because you’re getting a direct connection into what we do and how we do it,” said Sara Badler, svp of programmatic revenue and strategy at Dotdash.

To demonstrate the value of its PMP, Leaf Group provides its PMP advertisers with win-rate curves to guide their programmatic bids in order to improve their chances of securing its inventory. These graphs chart clearing prices against win rates in order to show an advertiser how many impressions an advertiser may expect to receive at different bid prices, and they can break down an advertisers’ odds for different scenarios, such as the site section or audience location that an advertiser has its eyes on.

Additionally, Leaf Group is working with advertisers to identify the most efficient buying paths through the programmatic supply chain, such as what combination of demand-side platform, header bidding wrapper and supply-side platform would yield the best performance at the best price. That work takes advantage of the data that Leaf Group has access to, such as its first-party data and its revenue shares with various ad tech vendors.

For publishers, being able to provide transparency into the path to their programmatic supply has historically been a challenge. Their contracts with SSPs usually precluded them from being able to share information like the fees that an SSP charges for sales it facilitates. But that is changing as advertisers, agencies and publishers have pressured ad tech vendors for more transparency into the proverbial ad tech tax.

BuzzFeed has been able to provide more of that transparency by resigning contracts with its SSPs or enabling options within the SSPs to share that information with advertisers, said Michele DeVine, senior director of programmatic partnerships at BuzzFeed.

Publishers are taking advantage of other information to boost buyers’ interest in their PMPs. AccuWeather has its sellers monitor what advertisers are purchasing its inventory on the open exchange and at what prices, said Krembs. This recon work enables its sellers to upsell open exchange advertisers on setting up a PMP deal. BuzzFeed provides its sales team with weekly reports that show which advertisers are buying its inventory through the open exchange and which are buying through its PMPs. That insight into the open market activity gives BuzzFeed’s sellers a view of what inventory, including content types and ad formats, an advertiser is buying, which they can use to craft a PMP pitch for that advertiser. “I always tell our sellers that we haven’t lost when a buyer has gone into the open market,” said DeVine.

That monitoring can also help publishers to ensure they are not losing PMP buyers at a time when they may be more vulnerable to that happening. While it may seem obvious that a publisher should monitor its PMP activity and check for inactive advertisers, it can be all too easy for a publisher to set up a PMP and then forget it. That’s why Dotdash’s Badler schedules a quarterly “spring cleaning” for all of the publisher’s sales teams to review its PMP deals. “It’s a good refresher because you set up so many different types. You set up mobile and desktop and outstream and pre-roll, and you just want to make sure you’re being thoughtful in what you’re doing,” she said.

The post Publishers are using their PMPs to answer advertisers’ efficiency demands appeared first on Digiday.

“It used to be that only small, tiny businesses were relevant for us,” said Shai. “Today we are seeing so many other people coming to our platform and using our solution, from medium-sized companies to agencies, marketers, SEO experts. It’s opened up a new opportunity to go after those users so we’re adding more ingredients to our marketing mix.”

In the first quarter of 2019, Wix.com spent $55 million in marketing. Typically, the first quarter’s marketing spend is significantly higher than the rest of the year, as the first quarter is when the company acquires the most users and has the most visitors to its site, said Joe Pollaro, general manager of the U.S. for Wix.com, who added that the company spends across various channels online including search engines, social networks, streaming and branding activities. The company declined to break out exactly how it spends its dollars or share percentage allocations, citing competitive advantage. In 2018, Wix.com spent $74 million in marketing, up from 2017’s $70 million, according to Kantar.

At the same time, in a bid to reach engineers specifically, Wix.com has been increasing its experiential marketing budget for demos, hackathons and developer conferences. The company also recently bolstered its in-housing marketing team, which handles all of its marketing, with the acquisition of Tel Aviv-based Gefen Team this past May.

In December of 2018 and April of 2019, Wix.com released two new products, Ascend and Corvid, respectively. Ascend targets entrepreneurs with a suite of 20 products to help them connect more deeply with customers. Corvid, meanwhile, is an open development platform which allows the designers, engineers and agencies Wix.com is now looking to attract to build more advanced websites.

The tweaks to Wix.com’s marketing approach follows the addition of these products, with the company aiming to boost its presence on Twitter and LinkedIn with a mix of paid and earned media. While LinkedIn has been part of its marketing mix for some time, it was a smaller percentage. Now it is more of a focus with the company spending more and posting more product updates on its blog, slideshows about its marketing tools and questions to drive engagement on the platform.

The company increased its focus on LinkedIn after running some initial tests with positive results, per Shai, but the company did not share what those results look like. Wix.com uses an internal metric, TROI or “time to return on marketing investment, with the aim of recouping its marketing dollars within seven to nine months after spending them through premium Wix.com subscriptions. As of March 2019, according to TROI via a company powerpoint, Wix.com had recouped $27 million of the $55 million it spent on marketing in the first quarter of this year.

In moving to mediums where its content — with paid dollars behind posts promoting an e-book for agencies, its agency partner program and a demonstration of how to build a website on its platform — will be more impactful, the company is hoping that its ads will be more relevant to its audience than a 30-second spot on YouTube. As of June 2019, registered users were up year-over-year to 148 million at the end of the first quarter with premium subscriptions up 21% year over year to 4.2 million.

Wix.com’s push into LinkedIn comes as the platform has worked to beef up ad targeting and as it plans to release a tool that will allow advertisers to retarget LinkedIn users, as previously reported by Digiday.

“LinkedIn is a logical place to target small and medium-sized businesses,” said Allen Adamson, brand consultant and co-founder of Metaforce. “It’s a hub for their target audience and a smart marketing targeting strategy.”

The post How Wix.com is using LinkedIn to target designers, engineers and agencies appeared first on Digiday.

Why do DTC companies care so much about it?
Back when brands sold predominantly through wholesale, the number of channels through which customers could first discover your product were much more limited — either they came through Kohl’s or Target or Nordstrom or whatever other store your company sold through.

But DTC brands don’t have the luxury of relying on department stores to help their customers discover their products. The idea is that, if they can figure out which channels drive the most customers to their website, then they can invest more in that channel, and not waste their precious marketing dollars on a channel that doesn’t actually help them find new customers.

What’s the “real” reason this becomes more important?
“A big driver of it is usually, ‘I just want to give Facebook less money,’” Chris Toy, the CEO and co-founder of MarketerHire, a platform for freelance marketers said. DTC brands like Brooklinen and Bombas, both of which at one point spent nearly 80% of their advertising budget on Facebook, essentially built their businesses off of Facebook. But, with Facebook ads getting more and more expensive, brands want to find channels that essentially get them customers as many customers as Facebook once did, but for cheaper. And that’s where attribution comes in.

How do you measure attribution?
The truth is that there’s no single, correct way to measure attribution. If you do figure it out, be prepared to have a lot of DTC brands ringing your doorbell.

OK, so how do brands try to measure it?
One of the most common methods of measurement is last-click attribution — basically, the last ad a customer clicks on before buying a product is the one that is “responsible” for getting the sale. But some marketers would argue that it’s top-of-the-funnel advertising — the ads that a customer first sees as they’re starting to research what bedding or cookware to buy,  — that’s more important, as it gets the brand’s name first ingrained in the customer’s brain. It’s a chicken-and-the-egg problem. Another popular attribution method is multi-touch attribution, which tries to track all of the channels a customer comes in contact with that lead to a sale.

What about if you hear an ad on a podcast, or see an ad on a subway, or some other unclickable format?
What many early DTC brands tried to do (and some still do) is include a promo code on these out-of-home ads. If the customer went and redeemed the unique code that had the brand had created specifically for subway ads, then its marketing team knows that that’s the ad that prompted the customer to buy.

But, sometimes customers don’t remember to use the promo code. So what a number of brands are now relying on are post-purchase surveys: asking customers “how did you hear about us?” after they buy online. Will Flaherty, vp of growth for Ro, previously told Modern Retail that when the company ran a post-purchase survey following a big television and out-of-home advertising campaign in Boston last fall, many of the customers who bought online cited those television and out-of-home ads as the place that they first heard about the brand. But if Ro had just followed the last click-attribution method, it would have attributed those sales to Facebook or Google, since those were typically the last ads customers clicked on before they purchased. Emily Boschwitz, vice president of marketing and acquisition for Hims, said that the brand has in the past relied on lift analysis — running an out-of-home or another new campaign type in one city, and then once that campaign is over, running brand awareness surveys in that city and another to see if the campaign resulted in higher brand awareness in that city.

Do brands need to try all these methods?
What’s more important than figuring out the right method(s) of attribution is just coming up with a model and sticking to it. That way, if you test out a new channel — say, you decide to allocate 5% of your marketing budget towards Pinterest that month — you have a way of “comparing apples to apples,” as Toy puts it. He said that brands run a greater risk in making too drastic of a change than in settling for an OK method of attribution. Or, if they spend too much time experimenting with different attribution methods, it can take resources away from other valuable marketing efforts, like developing and testing creative.

“There’s no such thing as a pure-play source of truth,” Siddiqi said.

The post How DTC brands are approaching attribution appeared first on Digiday.